After India’s marvellous success at the Tokyo Olympics, it appears that it has influenced the sports budget on Tuesday as the central government allocated Rs 3062.60 crores for the financial year 2022-23, a rise of Rs 305.58 crore in comparison to last year’s amount.
In the last financial year, the government allocated Rs 2596.14 crore for sports, which was later on revised to Rs 2757.02 crores.
In Tokyo Olympics 2021, India had won seven medals, including a historic track and field gold medal by Neeraj Chopra. The sporting activities have also started again in a phased manner in the country and 2022 is an important year because of two global events, Birmingham Commonwealth Games and Hangzhou Asian Games coming soon. Considering all of it, the government might have decided to spend more on Sports.
The government flagship ‘Khelo India’ programme notices an increase of Rs 316.29 crore in the 2021-22 budget, presented by the Finance Minister of the country, Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday. Regarding the Khelo India Programme, the financial allocation which got Rs 657.71 crore in the last budget, was risen to Rs 974 crore.
In terms of encouragement and awards to sportspersons, there has been witnessed a substantial increase from RS 245 crore to Rs 357 crore. The SAI’s (Sports Authority of India) budget had been decreased by Rs 7.41 cr to Rs 653 cr.
The SAI is the nodal organization in managing national camps, providing infrastructure, equipment, and other logistics to the country’s sportspersons. The allocation towards the National Sports Development Fund has been decreased by Rs 9 crore to Rs 16 crore.
The National service scheme has experienced a huge jump of Rs 118.50 crore from Rs 165 crore to Rs 283.50 crore. The allocation of NSFs (National Sporting Federations) remains the same at Rs 280 crore. Incentives for sportspersons budget has advanced to a minimal hike of Rs 1 crore to Rs 55 crore. The National Sports Development Fund’s budget has been further decreased to Rs 16 crore from Rs 25 crore.
